Journal of Neuroscience
November 8, 2017
Lindsey Friend, Jared Weed, Philip Sandoval et al.
The VTA is necessary for reward behavior with dopamine cells critically involved in reward signaling. Dopamine cells in turn are innervated and regulated by neighboring inhibitory GABA cells. Using whole-cell electrophysiology in juvenile-adolescent GAD67-GFP male mice, we examined excitatory plasticity in fluorescent VTA GABA cells. A novel CB1-dependent LTD was induced in GABA cells that was...
Cerebrum
November 1, 2017
P. Zak
Editor’s Note Buddhism shares with science the task of examining the mind empirically. But Buddhism has pursued, for two millennia, direct investigation of the mind through penetrating introspection. Neuroscience, on the other hand, relies on third-person knowledge in the form of scientific observation. In the book that is the subject of this review, two friends, one a Buddhist monk trained as...
Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience
October 27, 2017
Silvia Sánchez-Ramón, Florence Faure
4 citations
The recognition of internal and external sources of stimuli, the self from non-self, seems to be an intrinsic property to the adequate functioning of the immune system and the nervous system, both complex network systems that have evolved to safeguard the self biological identity of the organism. The mammalian brain development relies on dynamic and adaptive processes that are now well...
Nómadas Revista Crítica de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas
October 27, 2017
Adolfo Vásquez Rocca
5 citations
This article aims to account for the elusive phenomenon of consciousness from the original perspective neurophenomenology of Francisco Varela, who from concepts such as neuroplasticity, enaction and emergency explains how occur brain processes that underlie consciousness and "unity" of the experience. Describing as consciousness appears in living flesh: in regulation with the whole body; in...
Science Advances
October 4, 2017
Sofie L. Valk, Boris C. Bernhardt, Fynn-Mathis Trautwein et al.
Although neuroscientific research has revealed experience-dependent brain changes across the life span in sensory, motor, and cognitive domains, plasticity relating to social capacities remains largely unknown. To investigate whether the targeted mental training of different cognitive and social skills can induce specific changes in brain morphology, we collected longitudinal magnetic resonance...
Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
October 3, 2017
Fengguo Liu, Jingjing Wu, Yu Gong et al.
Depression is a world-wide disease with no effective therapeutic methods. Increasing evidence indicates that astrocytic pathology contributes to the formation of depression. In this study, we investigated the effects of harmine, a natural β-carboline alkaloid and potent hallucinogen, known to modulate astrocytic glutamate transporters, on chronic unpredictable stress (CUS)-induced...
Biblioteca de la Escuela Argentina de Tantra
September 30, 2017
Oscar R. Gómez
Several clinical studies show how exercises from Vedic traditions, such as yoga, or from Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist traditions, as well as Tantric practices, have a significant psychobiological impact. This study seeks the neurophysiological correlates of practices called Tantric and non-Tantric meditations through empirical trials and a qualitative systematic review. First, the results of...
Translational Psychiatry
September 19, 2017
A Ahnaou, H Huysmans, R Biermans et al.
Recently, the N-methyl-d-aspartate-receptor (NMDAR) antagonist ketamine has emerged as a fast-onset mechanism to achieve antidepressant activity, whereas its psychomimetic, dissociative and amnestic effects have been well documented to pharmacologically model schizophrenia features in rodents. Sleep-wake architecture, neuronal oscillations and network connectivity are key mechanisms supporting...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
August 31, 2017
R L Carhart-Harris, D J Nutt
Previous attempts to identify a unified theory of brain serotonin function have largely failed to achieve consensus. In this present synthesis, we integrate previous perspectives with new and older data to create a novel bipartite model centred on the view that serotonin neurotransmission enhances two distinct adaptive responses to adversity, mediated in large part by its two most prevalent and...
Neuropsychologia
August 31, 2017
Haakon Engen, Boris C. Bernhardt, Leon Skottnik et al.
ABSTRACT Our goal was to assess the effects of long‐term mental training in socio‐affective skills on structural brain networks. We studied a group of long‐term meditation practitioners (LTMs) who have focused on cultivating socio‐affective skills using loving‐kindness and compassion meditation for an average of 40k h, comparing these to meditation‐naïve controls. To maximize homogeneity of...